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Re: GCC Needs a backend cleanup and complete rewrite
On 22-Feb-2001, James Buchanan <jamesb@northnet.com.au> wrote:
> Nice little bombshell for ya. GCC is a bloody mess.
Tell us something we don't know.
> Just where is one
> supposed to start in building a new front end is a pressing one,
See <http://gcc.gnu.org/readings.html and in particular
follow the links from <http://www.geocities.com/timjosling/gcc_toc.html>.
Also check out the `toy' front-end.
> I'm sure it is possible to have a "pseudo assembler" kind of IR and the
> abovesaid API which generates it from new languages, and working in
> conjunction with the API which provides a higher look at IF-THEN-ELSE and
> DO-WHILE etc, say a nice clean interface.
There's always C-- <http://www.cminusminus.org>.
Or you could even implement a C-- front-end for GCC.
> Maybe an object-oriented, Standard C++ implemented GCC release 5
If you want to reimplement GCC, I'd suggest using a strongly typed
language with run-time type safety and garbage collection. C++
is not really very strongly typed, and lacks run-time type safety
and garbage collection. (Actually the current approach to GC in
GCC works pretty well. So maybe you could do without that.
Having a builtin GC would simplify things a little bit, though.)
--
Fergus Henderson <fjh@cs.mu.oz.au> | "I have always known that the pursuit
| of excellence is a lethal habit"
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh> | -- the last words of T. S. Garp.